Keeping your hands warm

Now that winter has finally come to Baltimore, I am reminded how difficult it is to keep your hands warm in cold weather (and I recently read some research that suggests that women's blood circulation in the hands is not as good as men's, which is why our hands get colder). There are 2 things that help: 1) mittens are much warmer than gloves because your fingers help keep each other warm. If you absolutely have to have some manual dexterity, then trying a pair of fingerless gloves with a mitten covering is worth a try, but - trust me- they will not keep your hands as warm as a true mitten. 2) use hand cream liberally since dry skin makes the cold worse (and cold makes your dry skin worse). Try a heavy-duty cream like udder balm or Warm Cream (the makers claim that it promotes warmth by relaxing blood vessels thereby stimulating blood flow- don't know if it's true but it works). -- Marian